Hello all!
Ric here revisiting a series that hasn’t seen attention for some time where we look
at the lineage of starships in Trek that share a name!
This time we’re drawing out attention to the T’Plana Hath, a foundational ship in
the formation of the United Federation of Planets and one of the most important ships
in Human history, despite it not being a human vessel.
First up, the name T’Plana Hath is a Vulcan name and belongs to a historical figure from
the “Time of Awakening”, around the 4th century in the Earth calendar.
She was later referred to as the Matron of Vulcan Philosophy and the tutor of Surak and
another named Jarok.
Her teachings were centred at a prestigious college in ShiKahr, what would eventually
emerge as the capital city of Vulcan.
This college taught philosophy, mathematics and agriculture and made a great effort to
teach the truth of things through an unfiltered, logical lens, informed by history and fact.
This was a great deal during this era of Vulcan history, as it was during their more violent
time, when propaganda and global nuclear warfare were a near constant, a time that would see
a mass exodus of Vulcans, who would then become the Romulan Star Empire.
Just as Surak was remembered by the Vulcan people, so too was his teacher and while we
cannot say for certain, there were probably other vessels named for her before the first
we encountered in the canon.
From 2053, there was type of Vulcan survey and scout vessel known as the T’Plana Hath
class which was a small medium range vessel with a crew of a dozen at most, usually far
less.
The class was primarily a planetary survey vessel used to observe both pre-warp cultures
and other worlds but were limited to around Warp 2.
Because of this, they were most extensively sent to nearby systems to the Vulcan Sector,
including the Sol System in 2063, where the Vulcan Survey team witnessed the flight of
the Phoenix, and mankind’s first warp journey.
This class of ship was still in use by the Science Academy by 2249, although the Vulcan’s
High Command had generally moved on to newer designs.
By the 24th century, the class had been retired and was present in several museums.
However, in the mid-23rd century, T’Pari class was launched, another survey ship and
one of these was christened the VSS T’Plana Hath.
I could find no images of this class but internally humans described it as Spartan, while Vulcans
called it efficient.
Sounds about right.
Of course by this era, the Federation had been formed and Vulcan was a member world,
so there was an Engle type starship that also bore the name.
The USS T’Plana Hath NCC-1004 was present for the battle of the Binary Stars in 2257,
but was sadly lost in the conflict, but it must have been the second such commissioned,
as the USS Engle was registry 1003.
This ship’s design was based originally on the early NX-type vessels, possibly showing
its age and it relied on the older square nacelle design that Starfleet favoured in
the late 22nd and early 23rd century.
This distinctive style was common and included, quote: “Eaves/Beyer Warp drives!
Quadrilinear Infuser Coils!
N-Dimensional Phase Repeaters!
Bi-resonance Dilithium chambers!”
These were phased out of newer constructions like the Constitution class which went back
to earlier nacelle types.
In the 24th century there was another Starfleet vessel, class unknown called T’Plana Hath
which was active between 2349 and 2369, so a 20-year lifespan so far.
This could make it an Ambassador Class, but with the longevity of Starfleet designs, it
could just as likely be any ship from the late 23rd century, like and Excelsior.
Either way, the vessel still operated in close liaison with the Vulcans, had a Vulcan captain,
but later fell victim to the Borg in 2369 alongside the USS Valkyrie while trying to
secure Artificial Intelligence technology near Cardassian space.
The Valkyrie was lost, but the T’Plana Hath survived the encounter, crippled but alive.
So the namesake was very much a thinker and prominent figure in Vulcan society, so it
makes a lot of sense that they would honour her legacy with vessel names on ships dedicated
to science and learning.
We know precious little about the Starfleet iterations of the vessel, except that they
do not seem to fare well in combat, so presumably they are more geared towards science missions
than battle.
This might actually be the case as the 24th century version was not expecting to run across
the Borg, so a science vessel would make sense to procure AI tech.
It’s one of the few Starfleet ships that we see that has its name based in the history
of a Federation member, other than Earth, which does seem rather skewed to be honest,
but I love it when we get alien named vessels.
It directly adds to these other fictional cultures but showing a level of legacy and
history inherent to each one, it just so happens that while an important figure in Vulcan History,
the T’Plana Hath is pivotal for humans too.
With no survey ship, no first contact in 2063 and probably no United Earth, let alone a
Federation.
Thanks for watching this video on the T’Plana Hath.
I’ve been Ric and until the next one, thanks again and live long and prosper!